great and glorious as his resurrection, you who have had this Christ imputed to you as your righteousness, have received from God the greatest of all his gifts.

Believer! God has already done for you spiritually that "which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." You are redeemed if you are in Christ. All that Christ is, all that Christ has done, is made over to you by your simply believing in Him. All the powers of sin in earth and hell cannot hinder your salvation.

The sign of the cross is to you the symbol of the atoning death of your Redeemer; the breaking, by the hand of God, of that seal which the Jew and the Roman had placed upon the Redeemer's tomb, is the sign and pledge of your completed redemption. 'Rejoice evermore." "Pray without ceasing." "In every thing give thanks."

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"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ," to every one who yet needs his grace; "as. though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." We preach unto you Jesus and the Resurrection. The hour is at hand when nothing else will seem to you of any importance. Therefore "seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."

VI.

THE MAN AT THE WHEEL.

(WRITTEN AT SEA.)

"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." -Psalm 73: 24.

Dested

URING a long voyage few things interme more than the man at the wheel. While some of the crew were heaving the anchor, one sailor took his place at the wheel, pointing the ship on her course before the anchor had risen a few feet from the ground.

In a voyage of a hundred and eleven days to San Francisco, and thence to the Sandwich Islands, China, the East Indies and New York, there was a man at the wheel every moment, day and night, in storm and sunshine. Every man, except the officers, was in his turn two hours at a time during the whole voyage, the man at the wheel. Not till the word of command was given

inside the Golden Gate, "Let go the anchor," was the wheel deşerted. Every two hours, the man at the wheel was relieved by some shipmate who knew when it came his turn. The man at the wheel would say what point of the compass must be kept in mind; the man taking his place would repeat his words. "South west by south half south," says the man who seizes the wheel to take his place.

In

Going on deck at midnight there is the man at the wheel. Coming up to watch the sunrise you salute the man at the wheel. During a gale, if you venture on deck curious to see the swelling ocean, you find the man at the wheel. a dead calm, the ship motionless, there stands the man at the wheel. The sea runs high, the wave looks down upon you as though it would swallow you up. "Meet her!" cries the mate; the man at the wheel swings the bowsprit in the teeth of the billow; you go up to the heavens; then down again into the deep.

You always feel on shipboard that there is one man doing something for you. During divine: service on Sabbath morning, two men at least, are always absent, one, the officer of the deck, the other, the man at the wheel. If you start in your sleep you instantly think, There is at least one who is awake, the man at the wheel. I never passed him day or night, without giving

and receiving a salutation. You feel that he is your personal friend.

The compass lies directly in front of the wheel; the binnacle lamp shines all night upon the compass, which points the way the ship is headed, and the man at the wheel is told to keep her so. If the wind sets her off her course the endeavor is to get as near to it as the wind will allow, keeping the sails "full and by" the wind, the steersman using his discretion how to do so.

One cannot see himself thus continually kept on his course through the deep without being reminded that if he is a child of God, he has Christ Jesus as the man at the wheel to his soul as truly as at every moment of a voyage, however long, he has a man at the wheel of his ship. Without presumption, but with the utmost confidence, with full assurance of faith, every one who loves God may say to the Saviour, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." He may be as confident of the incessant guidance of his soul by Christ, as the passenger is of the perpetual service of a man at the wheel.

It used to occur to me, Suppose that instead of having twenty-eight men taking turn, each of them two hours at a time, to steer me across the globe, the service were done by a single man who, day and night should be my steersman, standing

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every moment at the wheel, buffetted by the gale, pelted by the rain, scorched by the sun, straining every sense in the dark nights to guard against collisions, till finally I should see the anchor dropped in the desired haven, without any casualty, delay, loss, damage, from the beginning to the end of the voyage, I could not part with that man without emotions unutterable. Yet here I am on the voyage of life with One at the wheel who has been there from my infancy to the present hour, to whom I may with joyful confidence repeat these words, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory."

We bless the memory of this translator who used the word "shalt" in this passage, instead of wilt." He lets David here speak not prophetically, but trustfully, confiding himself to divine guidance, not merely foretelling that he will be guided, but declaring his willingness to be. There may be all the difference between a believer and unbeliever in saying "shalt" rather than "wilt" in such a case as this; whether you as from the heart, avouch the Lord God to be your Supreme ruler, or merely declare that He will be. Using here the word "shalt," implies a cordial choice of divine guidance. He who has made such choice has the hand of infinite love on his helm. Some helms seem to have no